Buster

Buster is an English springer spaniel. He has earned many military tributes and served in three separate wars: Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan, an achievement unparalleled by any other service dog. He won the Crufts Friends for Life Award in 2012 and was also nominated for a prestigious Sun Military Award in 2009. Buster is the official lifetime mascot of the RAF Police. He retired a military hero in 2011.

RAF Police Flight Sergeant Michael ‘Will’ Barrow joined the RAF at 18. He then specialised as a Drugs Detection Dog Handler and an Arms and Explosives Search Dog Handler, and has served in the Falkland Islands, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Isabel George's fascination with animal heroes began as a child. Her father's stories about the dogs, cat, monkeys and creatures of all species that were adopted by crews of British warships during the Second World War fired her imagination and triggered an interest that has lasted a lifetime. A career spanning 25 years in journalism and PR has included working with animal charities such as the PDSA and organisations such as the Imperial War Museum, the Kennel Club as well as the Armed Forces in the UK and overseas. Interviewing veterans who have served with animals in war continues to be a joy and an honour for this writer whose best selling books prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that animals can also serve beyond the call of duty.